Hidden behind curtains in small booths decked along the wall of a dark internet café in the heart of Jerusalem, Jewish ultra-Orthodox teenagers explore a forbidden world. More and more ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, youngsters are becoming interested in the secular world surrounding their tightly sealed society, and the web is today a central battleground between tradition and reform.
Questions over possible conflicts of interest involving acting members of the judiciary have been raised by the disclosure this week that advocate Dumisa Ntsebeza has not declared his business involvement since assuming the position of acting judge. In 1999, Ntsebeza was appointed to the board of Barlow World and is currently a non-executive director of the company.
The Western Cape province is a victim of its own success. Blessed with scenic beauty and an upwardly mobile economy (the growth rate last year was 5,3% compared to the national average of 4,5%), it is perceived as a ”rich province” and is a drawcard for many. But infrastructure and services are being stretched.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale is exquisitely painful and root-canal-jabbingly uncomfortable, writes Peter Bradshaw.
A British national accused of starting a blaze on Table Mountain in January in which a woman died, appeared briefly in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday. Anthony Cooper, out on bail of R3Â 000, faces charges of arson and culpable homicide. He is alleged to have flicked a burning cigarette into the brush.
A British lawmaker renowned for his firebrand rhetoric drew a storm of criticism on Friday by saying a suicide bomber would be ”morally justified” in killing Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war. George Galloway was asked in a magazine interview if he thought such an attack was justifiable provided there were no other casualties.
The United States Senate on Friday confirmed air force General Michael Hayden as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, which has been in turmoil over intelligence failures leading up to the September 11 attacks and the 2003 Iraq invasion.
The Hamas government on Friday recalled a controversial paramilitary force from the streets of Gaza on the second day of cross-party talks to resolve deadly Palestinian feuding. The move came one day after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to call a referendum to end the deadly rivalry between Hamas and his former ruling Fatah party.
Hundreds of Somalis packed mattresses and food into minivans and trucks, preparing to flee their capital a day after it suffered some of the fiercest battles in 14 days. Doctors reached by telephone in the city’s hospitals and clinics raised the death toll from Thursday’s fighting to 60, with more than 150 wounded.
The Pretoria High Court on Friday turned down an application by 15 refugees to set aside a refusal by the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority not to register them as security guards. Their registration was earlier refused on the grounds that they were neither South African citizens nor permanent residents.